Bengt Normann supports medicine and honours Onkel Adam

Jenny Widén

In his view, he has had a rich life, both professionally and personally, with more money than he needed and the opportunity to make something meaningful out of this, something that will live on.

Bengt Normann’s father was a surgeon and chief physician. He passed away when Bengt and his older brother were children, and it felt natural for them to follow in their father’s footsteps by devoting themselves to medicine.

An unexpected pioneer in Linköping

Bengt studied in Uppsala and was about to start research under the supervision of well-reputed bacteriologist Lars Edebo, who became his mentor and came to have a major influence on his choice of career. When Lars Edebo got a position, first in Lund then in Linköping, Bengt went with him. This placed him within the circle of young researchers and doctors from Lund who, somewhat unexpectedly, became pioneers in Linköping when the new medical programme was established there. Three of them, Olle Stendahl, Christer Tagesson and Bengt himself, have remained close friends over the years.

Jenny Widén

Before coming to Lund, Bengt had never heard of his relative Onkel Adam – his grandmother’s grandfather. But Bengt's father had roots in Scania, and some siblings in Skanör. When Bengt visited them, Onkel Adam’s name was often mentioned, and the message was clear: Bengt should learn more about him.

Following his PhD degree from Linköping in 1973, Bengt Normann worked as an infectious diseases specialist, clinical teacher and associate professor. For the last twenty years of his career, he was Östergötland’s infectious disease physician.

Teaching has always been close to Bengt’s heart. Being lovingly called “Bengan Bacill” (“Bengt Bacillus”) by his students shows that he was an appreciated teacher. This is also evident from his receiving the award “Kandidat Kork”, presented by the medical students to a teacher who can make even the “most stupid student” understand.

Inspired by Onkel Adam

When Bengt Normann retired in 2010, he started thinking about using his savings in a meaningful way. With more time on his hands, he heeded to his Scanian family’s request to learn more about his fascinating relative Carl Anton Wetterbergh, Onkel Adam.

Onkel Adam was born in 1804 in Jönköping, but spent the latter part of his life in Linköping where his home on Hunnebergsgatan remains as a museum. He was a well-known writer, diligent publicist and reform-minded politician, and a military physician by profession. In his books, he would mock the intelligentsia and defend the rights of children, women and other weak groups. Carl Anton Wetterbergh also issued a publication for children, “Linnea”, a forerunner to today’s “Kamratposten”.

At Onkel Adam’s funeral in 1889, many pupils in Linköping were given the day off in his honour. Bengt Normann points out that this really shows how appreciated Onkel Adam was. The strange thing, however, is that after his passing, he seems to have been quickly forgotten, and today few people know what he devoted his life to.

Bengt tells us that the more he read and learned about Onkel Adam’s life, the more he became fond of him as a person and intellectual role model. Bengt thinks that his relative deserves to be more famous than he is today, which is why he decided to donate funds for an award in his name and spirit – the Onkel Adam Prize.

Prize for medical research

The Onkel Adam Prize was established in the spring of 2020 through a generous donation to LiU’s Jubilee Foundation. Bengt Normann has expressed a wish for the Onkel Adam Prize to be given as a personal award each year at the Academic Ceremony to a well-established, highly respected and successful researcher clearly associated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Linköping University.

The purpose of the prize is to reward and promote medical research and to honour Onkel Adam. This, plus giving something back to the university that has provided a stimulating and fun career, is a source of joy to Bengt Normann.

Today, maybe Uncle Adam would have become an honorary doctor at LiU. What is certain, however, is that Bengt Normann was made a jubilee doctor in 2023, together with his colleagues and friends Christer Tagesson and Olle Stendahl, the latter an important discussion partner for Bengt when it came to designing his donation.

Jenny Widén